Legal and Human Right Centre (LHRC) Executive Director Dr Hellen Kijo Bi-Simba.
Dar es Salaam. A public sensitisation campaign
was launched yesterday to have as many Tanzanians as those registered in
the voter register go out and vote on election day.
Five
organisations announced yesterday they will be campaigning to overturn
the trend in which just over a quarter of those who register as voters
do actually go out and cast ballots.
The National
Electoral Commission (Nec) revealed on Wednesday that it had registered
more than 24 million people using the biometric voter registeration
(BVR) system.
With voter apathy experienced in the last
elections, there are concerns that not all those who obtained the cards
issued by Nec would go out and vote.
“During the
listing excercise, some people registered just to get the IDs for other
use, but if they get the right education, the turnout on October 25 will
definitely be high. What matters is to make sure that timely civic
education is given,” said the Legal and Human Right Centre (LHRC)
Executive Director Dr Hellen Kijo Bi-Simba.
The last
General Election in 2010, produced one of the lowest voter turnouts,
with just 8 million people out of 20 million registered as voters
casting their ballots.
But now LHRC, BBC Media Action,
Restless Development, Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) and Oxfam want to
change that through a sensitisation programme dubbed Fahamu, Ongea,
Sikilizwa (Fos) in Kiswahili, which literally translates ‘ Know, speak
and be heard’.
Unveiling the plan before journalists in
Dar es Salaam yesterday, Dr Kijo-Bisimba said there was no reason why
24 million people in the poll register should not take seriously their
right to vote.
“LHRC trained and deployed more than 160
observers to monitor the BVR process in six phases and covered 165
district councils in 23 regions, the team will also be deployed now as
we start the campaign to sensitise people on voting,” she said.
No comments :
Post a Comment